Runaway
by Kairei
Summary: After an argument with Squall, Rinoa runs away, only to be attacked by the past.


A/N: Heyloooo again. Heh. Been a while hasn't it?

Well, I'm here, freshening up my rusty old writing skills with a one-shot. SOooooOo here I am, coming back from my "temporary retirement". Im warning you now. This story has absolutely no point. It is by far the worst I've ever written XD haha. Well, it is. There's no point, no storyline. Nothing.

It's just a one shot that I wrote waking up one early morning. -o- yawn

In any case, here it is. . .

**RUNAWAY**

Each step was accompanied by the ominous creak of the ancient bridge. Her pace was a rather slow one, the result of the state of the bridge as well as the state of her heart. Her eyes, now distant, with no sign of the usual glint of determination were fixed on the rotting old wood of the bridge. Her sopping wet locks guarding her ashen face from any one else. But there was no one else.

She froze.

There was no one else. She had run away, of course there was no one else. She had run to be alone.

That was a lie.

She had run away. But that was only so that…

"He didn't come after me." The words she breathed were soft. So soft, she had barely heard thing. "He didn't come after me." She repeated, only a bit louder. The only thing that bothered to answer her however, was the rain, accompanied by the distant sound of rolling thunder.

There she stood, in the middle of an old wood plank and rope bridge that, in its condition almost defied the laws of gravity. She shivered. Her high school uniform hardly a shield from the cold with its short sleeves and short skirt. The only source of warmth she could be thankful for were the tears slowly streaming from her eyes.

"He's not coming after me." She whispered, the wind picking up as she did so.

She fell to her knees as the bridge swayed. The eerie creek failed to have any effect on her. "He's never coming." There, in the middle of the fog and rain, the rest of her body collapsed to hit the planks of wood.

Her vision blurred, the scene around her darkening, until there was nothing left.

Rinoa floated in the darkness, clearly unaware of where she was. It wasn't like she cared in the first place. It wasn't as if it mattered. "He's not coming." But her words never made it into existence. Instead, a blinding flash overwhelmed her, as time seemed to speed by her, taking her scene after scene, sometimes only to darkness where she seemed to hear the past.

"That's the new kid. His name is Squall."

"What kind of name is that?"

"Sounds like a dweeb to me."

"Shut up. Like you guys are any better. Judging people by their names, how mean. If your personality matched your names, you'd be named Buckethead, and Barface." The little girl glared at the two boys, one next to her, the other across the table. There were only three tables designated for the third grade. After a few seconds of her famous death glare, she turned her gaze to the new boy.

"Rinoa… your not going on. Let him sit at the nerd table."

The girl's eyes returned to the boy once more, "Shut it Seifer.". Her cold expression instantly transformed to that of cheerfulness as she turned once more to the boy. There he stood, lunch pail in hand, and a lost expression on his face as he looked at the tables in the cafeteria. Clearly, the poor boy had no idea where to sit.

"Hey! Over here!" The girl called. Being only a few feet away, the boy looked at her, he looked a bit surprised, before a faraway expression returned to his face. "Come sit with us!" The girl said, a big smile on her face as she pushed the boy next to her over to create space on the bench. The boy glared at the new kid as he took up the area between him and the girl.

"My name's Rinoa Heartily. What about you?" She asked, smiling.

The new boy stared at Rinoa, his face expressionless. "Squall."

Rinoa's smile only widened as she embraced the boy who was either horrified or extremely surprised in a warm hug. "Nice too meet ya!"

FLASH

A little girl sat in the middle of the third grade story time rug crying. In her tiny hands was a little empty box.

"Rinoa? What's wrong with you?" Squall asked, standing over her.

Rinoa pouted, her eyes quivering with tears looking up straight into his. "My hic Pokemon cards."

The boy looked down at her for a moment before turning, walking calmly across the room over to another boy, Seifer. There he stood with his friends, laughing. "Yah, haha that little brat thinks she can ignore me?"

"Whoa, she had pretty good cards, nice one Seif." Another boy said, smiling. His joyful face however was smeared right off as his gaze fell on the boy standing behind Seifer.

As Seifer turned around, too see why he wasn't getting all the attention, he was grabbed by the collar. His eyes instantly met that of a very pissed off little boy. "You scum. You give her cards back, or you'll be eating the art paint in about 3 seconds."

FLASH

"RINOA! RINOA! GET DOWN FROM THERE!" A nine year old boy called, his voice filled with fear.

"WHY!? I'M STAYING OUT OF YOUR LIFE AREN'T I!?" The girl called from her position on the tree.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? IF YOU FALL, YOU'LL DIE."

"OH PLEASE! IM NOT GONNA-" But the strain to yell her loudest at him had made her lose her balance. And the little Rinoa fell from the branch with a piercing scream.

"RINOAA!" Came the voice from below. The boy ran as fast as his little legs would carry him.

He stood with his arms wide open as she crashed down onto him. Both ended up on the ground.

Rinoa blinked for a second before grabbing his shirt, shaking him. "SQUALL! Oh God Squall why'd you.. SQUALLY!" But his eyes were closed, his bangs messily hanging in his face.

Rinoa remained on top of him, her eyes quivering. "Squall…" She buried her face in his chest "SQUALL!". The girl sobbed. If she hadn't had been so stupid and immature, he'd be okay. This was all her fault..

Her head began to move a bit. Squall's chest and stomach were moving up and down rapidly as he started to laugh.

Rinoa blinked.

His eyes opened and looked up at her, he smiled "Yo."

Rinoa blinked once more before flames started to admit around her. "YOU…YOU…YOU…JERK!" She screamed, before slapping him across the face, standing up, and ran, leaving a hysterical little boy on the ground.

FLASH She was now ten years old, skipping to her best friend's house.

Rinoa bounced, yes, bounced up to the front door, she didn't need to knock. The queen bee of the Leonhart household had seen her coming. As soon as she had reached the top step, the door had opened. Her senses were instantly tickled by the warmth of the house, as well as the calling smell of freshly baked cookies. Rinoa skipped in, smiling at the woman before making her way up the stairway.

"Squally!" Rinoa sang, throwing open the door of her friend's room.

'Squally' was found on his bed, he sat up to look at her with a rather annoyed look.

"Rinoa, haven't you heard of knocki-" But his words were cut off as he found that he had grown an appendage from his neck- a little, loud, crazy girl.

Taken by surprise, both the children crashed with a THUD to the floor.

They both laughed, long and hard as they found themselves in the middle of the junk pile that was Squall's room. Their laughter only continued as they began to wrestle playfully, the sounds of their happiness rang out through the household.

FLASH

"She's…gone." His voice was soft. It had grown low, now at the age of 14. The young man called Squall remained there, sunken to his knees in the falling rain. His eyes held not sorrow, no sign of the angst within his heart. They remained cold, lifeless, painless… numb.

Rinoa stood in front of him, her eyes filled with sorrow. She dared not look into his eyes any longer. How had this happened?

They had just returned from their two week class trip. Returning to find that his mother had been buried.

"Squ-S" but she couldn't bring herself to utter his name. Rinoa clenched her eyes shut. She wanted to kill the driver. The driver who was stupid enough to go get himself dead drunk, and kill a pedestrian. Squall didn't even get to say goodbye. His thoughtless father had simply buried her- but Rinoa's thoughts were cut short.

Squall Leonhart began to cry.

The cold boy.

The one who had always been strong…

He was crying.

Rinoa's eyes shook violently with her own tears. She had always felt a love for him. She had always felt a need to be with him. She… She couldn't take this.

The girl fell to her knees in front of him, their faces only two inches apart. There, with the rain thundering down, sitting in the river that was forming in the cemetery.. they cried together. She wrapped her arms around him, whispering soft words soothingly into his ear.

"I can't go back… Dad'll be living in that house…" He whispered, his words hindered a bit from his sobs.

Rinoa closed her eyes again. "It'll be okay.." But who was she trying to convince? Just being here, with him like this.. it was enough to kill her.

"I still have you."

The girl's eyes shot open, tears forming in her eyes once more.

"I need you with me Rinoa.."

FLASH

"Hey baby. Why don't you come with us for the night." Her pace quickened at these words. Why had Squall chosen today to be in detention? If they hadn't argued about… what had they argued about again? Wow, maybe she should've waited for him.

"Yah, it's raining. It'll be so very cold. We need a little vixen to keep us nice and warm tonight."

She closed her eyes in concentration as she kept up her pace, but the thud of their boots followed. 'Ignore them Rinoa. Just ignore them. Keep your mouth shut this one time and keep walking.' This was the one time when she cursed her school for giving 15 year olds such short skirts.

It was then that she felt a strong, greasy hand on her wrist. She jerked, unable to stop as abruptly as the man intended. "Come on baby. Why the rush? Don't you want a little fun."

Rinoa's senses flared, her temper rising. She leaned closer to the man, a smile gracing her lips. "Oh yes Mr. I would love to have some fun." She stopped for a reaction, which was the disgusting excited snickers from the four rather large men. "You know what my idea of fun is?" She asked, her words dripping with venom. She didn't wait for an answer before bringing her knee up, connecting it with the man's most tender spot. The man doubled over, letting go of her wrist for the instant she needed to get away. Using her freed fist, she brought her arm back before bringing it up in a nose breaking uppercut.

She ran, her school shoes splashing lightly on the water soaked sidewalk. She continued running, she looked back, swearing. Three of the men were about a foot away from her, yelling drunkly "Come back baby!" and "Feisty little whore aren't you?!"

Rinoa looked back ahead of her, her house was still 2 blocks away. The world soon slid out of view as she became acquainted with the sidewalk. She winced under the great deal of weight on top of her, her heart pounding wildly.

The sound of a zipper struck a sting of fear into her as she was flipped over. She struggled, but her arms and legs refused to move, considering that they were being held down.

She clenched her eyes shut, what was going to happen to her now? No, she knew very well what was going to happen. Why this? Why her? Ohh she should have waited for Squall.

"HEY! Who the hell are you!?"

Before she had time to think anymore self stupidity thoughts, she noticed that she had full use of her limbs. Opening her eyes, the sight made her heart melt. There he was, standing over her, his eyes full of concern. "Let's get out of her quickly." He said, offering his hand to her.

Rinoa looked up at him, smiled and took his hand.

"RINOA!" The call was distant, yet strong.

"Th-Thanks." She stuttered as he pulled her up.

"RINOA! ANSWER ME!"

And then there was darkness. And once again, all that she could hear was the raindrops landing hard on the wooden bridge.

"RINOA!"

It was him.

The girl's eyes opened slowly. All she saw was the cloud ridden sky, the storm bringing in a dark blanket of thick clouds. The rain continued to pour, the drops stinging her open eyes. She heard the planks of wood creaking rapidly, and into her view, slid the familiar face of her best friend.

"Squall..?" She asked, wondering if he were really here. This was surely present. It was so real, and she couldn't recall a memory in the past similar.

She lifted her arm slowly, her hand coming into contact lightly with his soft, warm cheek. Her eyes softened.

Yes. It was real.

He was right there with her. There in the middle of an old rotten bridge threatening to fall to the depths of the cliffs at any moment. There with her in the middle of the storm, just as he had always been.

"You..you came for me."

Squall's eyes stared deep within hers. His expression was that of sorrow. Instantly, he took her in his arms, holding her as if afraid she were about to fade away. Never had she felt such sudden warmth.

Suddenly none of their awkward surroundings had any effect. None of it existed. It was just him holding her.

"You fool." He uttered. "You haven't changed."

She couldn't say anything, she didn't know what to say.

"Im sorry Rinoa, I didn't mean to say those things." Oh yes, that's why she had run away. They had gotten into a fight.

Another meaningless fight that she couldn't remember.

She always ran. She always ran for the sole purpose of him coming to find her. But she didn't need to anymore. He would always come to find her.

"Please. Don't ever do this again." He stood, wobbling a bit with the bridge. In one swift motion, she was in his arms once more. Being mindful of the bridge's state, he carried her through the mist. He carried her through the perils, across the wobbly bridge, he carried her home.

A/N: Wow..I don't think I've ever written something so pointless. Im in awe of my own stupidity and lack of creativity. . ;;; Damn.


End file.
